City Council Votes to Increase Budgets for Grants for Community Events

The July City Council meeting stopped abruptly when two councillors walked out during an acrimonious discussion about a motion regarding City Grants to non-profit organizations.

On August 25th, the motion and two addendums added by the Mayor, were re-introduced and respectfully discussed among the councillors.

The motion in question was put forward by Councillor Paul Minhas asking that certain long-standing organizations – legacy organizations – should be guaranteed city grants.

The two-part addendum to the motion put forward by the Mayor asked: First to increase the city grants by 50% for the coming budget year and second, to advocate to various provincial ministries for more funding so that the city can provide grants to more organizations. Currently, they are twice as many applications for grants as can be accommodated by the city. Most recently, there were asks for $2 million, while the available grants amounted to $1 million dollars.

The motion to guarantee funding to particular pre-determined organizations was not passed. However, the asks to increase city-grant budgets and to advocate for more provincial funding, were passed. In effect, an increase in available city grants would likely mean that some of the 'so-called' legacy organizations would have a greater likelihood of be funded in any case.

The Mayor said that the various services provided by organizations in the city such as those that put on fairs and festivals and hold important community events are very important to creating connections in the community, economic value, and tourism among other aspects considered key to the city's future.